


picture, you're the queen of everything

by ViolaWay



Series: tvd fix-it [1]
Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: (the series is eventually damon/elena but i didn't want to tag that bc they haven't interacted yet), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Multi, Wish me luck, also i wanted to fix damon's characterisation, don't believe what when harry met sally told you, i just wanted platonic stefan and elena ok, it's all lies, never romantic, platonic from the start, psa: boys and girls can be friends, through the medium of fanfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-22
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-05-22 16:56:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6087429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViolaWay/pseuds/ViolaWay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's TVD, but with fewer plot holes (theoretically), fewer love triangles and more lgbtq representation</p><p>~TVD re-write S1 E1: 'Pilot'~</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. a guide to predatory behaviour, courtesy of damon salvatore

**Author's Note:**

> spoilers: damon is bi

Damon doesn’t usually like to leave anything to chance, but sometimes he revels in the opportunity to play with his food. (Play with his prey, he’s quite proud of the alliteration on that one.) And he doesn’t deliberately go after all these tiresome straight couples like a modern day, vampire Zodiac Killer, but they’re just such easy targets and easy’s not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to food.

He can hear them from ages away, which makes it child’s play for him to dart into the road just in time for the dramatic squeal of the brakes and his body’s impact with the windshield. He’s never claimed not to be partial to the dramatic. The man’s out of the car first (they always are) while his girlfriend remains in the passenger seat, frantically calling for help. It’s lucky that there’s no signal around here, but he’d accounted for that. Nothing if not meticulous – Damon prides himself on that.

The man’s blood tastes bitter, full as it is of the chemicals that he ingests on a daily basis and has the nerve to call ‘food’. It’s not the ideal midnight snack, but the woman makes up for it. God, Damon hasn’t tasted anything as good as her in a while. It’s enough to make him want to conduct thorough background checks on his potential victims: the things healthy eating and regular exercise and an aversion to narcotics can do for the taste of one’s blood – it’s truly miraculous. It might also have something to do with how terrified she was before her unfortunate demise; Damon made sure to let her get a good look at her partner’s grisly fate and even run a few metres, screaming her pretty head off, before he pounced. With the blood racing at such a ferocious rate through her arteries, it had spurted wet, hot and sticky, straight into his waiting mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a manifesto for the fic: set in a parallel universe where platonic male/female relationships exist and there are lgbtq characters who aren’t non-sexually or romantically active white gay men (also trying to make the plotlines and characterisation make sense – i’ll let you know how that goes)  
> additional disclaimer: this is pure self-indulgence x


	2. first day of school, featuring a crow that just won't go away

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more spoilers: i think i just sort of moved everyone a few points higher up the kinsey scale. well, tyler's still straight. 
> 
> a note: i use '*' to indicate a passage of time and '~' to indicate a change of perspective within the same scene.

_September 7 th _

Standing on top of the roof of the boarding house, Stefan’s eyes roved over the rising sun, which was casting its pale pink rays across the morning sky, dappled through the tall, thin trees that surrounded the Salvatore plot of land. He hadn’t slept last night – technically speaking, he didn’t need to sleep, but sometimes he indulged – and he’d fed recently enough that the taste of animal blood was still tacky in his mouth. The aftertaste was often worse than the initial onslaught when it came to the forest creatures he tried to exclusively feed on.

There was still time, he considered vaguely, to leave Mystic Falls before anyone except Zach even so much as saw him. He didn’t have to perform this ridiculous charade again, in a town that forgot him over the course of the spin of each generation’s cycle. He certainly didn’t have to go back to high school, to be subjected to the monotony of 21st century teenage life (which actually differed very little from teenage life in any other century. Technology changed, people didn’t). In fact, he _shouldn’t_ be here. It was risky, for one thing. There might still be a few people, remnants of the preceding decades, who could notice his presence, remember his face. And then there were the _memories_ – they still tortured him, even after all these years. The town held nothing but putrid, diseased memories for him. Even the happiest of them had been tainted by the simple passage of time.

The problem was that he’d made one of his rare visits to the town to see Zach just under four months ago and the sound of a car’s collision into Wickery Bridge had drawn him to the scene. He’d managed to rescue the girl and her brother, but not the parents. He’d later found out that they were the Gilberts. The ones he hadn’t saved – Grayson and Miranda – and the ones he had: Jeremy, and his sister Elena.

The thing was, she looked exactly like Katherine.

Except that wasn’t possible.

He’d compelled her to forget their first encounter, but it still weighed on his mind. How could she possibly look so much like someone who was dead? All he knew was that this was a mystery that needed to be solved. His memories of Katherine weren’t overly fond: he knew that she had compelled him to love her, to let her feed on him, to let her turn him into a vampire. His brother, Damon – his love for her had been real, and it had facilitated his spiral into who he was today, Stefan was sure of it. Although he hadn’t seen his closest relation in fifteen years, there wasn’t a day that went by where he didn’t think of him. There was a part of him, a miniscule one, that still hoped his brother could be redeemed, but with every encounter Damon seemed to drift further out of his reach, finding new and disgusting ways to pervade morality.

He wanted to get to know this girl – Elena – and find out what she knew about Katherine. It defied logical explanation and he shuddered to think what would happen if Damon found out about the genetic anomaly, a reminder of his former love. Stefan didn’t know if he’d kill her or kiss her, when all was said and done.

Shaking his head, Stefan jumped from the roof, landing unharmed with his leather-bound diary tucked under his arm. It always soothed him to write in it, and with another few years as a student ahead, as well as a return to the suspicious and exclusionary society of Mystic Falls, he needed all the soothing he could get.

*

The sun was barely up and her alarm hadn’t even gone off when Elena arose from her bed, tugging open her curtains and meticulously preparing her appearance for the day. The theory of the matter was that if she _looked_ the part it would be easier to play the part. It was blessedly uncomplicated, focusing on simple, smaller tasks: straightening her hair and applying foundation, picking out a deceptively casual outfit – rather than contemplating the extent to which her first day back at school was going to be a nightmare. Her parents’ death was still fresh enough in everyone’s mind that her very presence was enough to send a well-meaning fellow student into a sympathy spiral, and that wasn’t something Elena needed right now. She’d had enough well-wishers to last a lifetime.

Her therapist – the one she’d been to two sessions with, before and after the funeral – had told her it might help to write down her feelings in a journal and she’d been doing so ever since, but even that didn’t provide the catharsis she so desperately wanted. This morning, it only reminded her of the necessity of the façade she’d been practising over the last week, studying her own face in the mirror. How to smile and have it not look weak, forced. It hadn’t seemed difficult until it was something she had to work at.

There were still so many reminders of her parents saturating the house. She couldn’t bring herself to take down the framed photos on her dresser, or the ones stuck to the sides of her mirror – but every time she looked at them, they were a heart-wrenching reminder of what she’d lost. Tears still prickled her eyes all too frequently when she thought about her mom’s soft voice and the pancakes her dad used to make. Exactly the sort of thoughts she was going to have to avoid today.

She waited until eight to finally venture downstairs. Aunt Jenna was already up and sifting through the contents of the fridge when Elena made her way into the kitchen. She offered toast, but Elena shook her head.

“It’s all about the coffee, Aunt Jenna.”

In truth, she hadn’t felt particularly hungry for the duration for the past few months. She was still eating regular meals and it wasn’t something she wanted to worry anyone about, but grief was a sure-fire way to lose an appetite. Besides, she was pretty sure she was going to need more than one cup of coffee to get through today.

At her words, Jeremy slouched into the kitchen, looking as though he’d rolled straight out of bed and into a hoodie. “Is there coffee?”

“Your first day of school, and I’m totally unprepared,” Jenna said. She started digging through her bag before raising a couple of dollar bills triumphantly. “Lunch money?”

“I’m good,” Elena mumbled, pouring the hot caffeine into a mug. They’d already disrupted Jenna’s life so much; it felt unfair to take more of her money than was needed. Anyway, considering she was feeling queasy before she’d even stepped out of the door, cafeteria food probably wasn’t going to be an option.

“Anything else? A number two pencil? What am I missing?”

Elena frowned, looking over at her panicked legal guardian. “Don’t you have a big presentation today?”

“I’m meeting with my thesis advisor at…now,” Jenna said, looking as through the face of her watch had mortally offended her. “Shit! I mean…crap, sorry.”

“Trust me, we’ve heard worse,” Elena smiled. “Just go. It’ll be fine.”

Jenna gave her a grateful look as she ran a hand through her hair, trying to make herself presentable. Another moment and she was out the door, leaving Elena and Jeremy to sort out the rest for themselves.

Elena sighed, somewhat relieved. She loved Jenna so much for everything she was doing but she knew that Jeremy was feeling stifled, stuck under their parents’ roof and forced into going back to school, facing a once familiar – but now daunting – routine. Elena could relate, and she’d felt claustrophobic herself a few times, but Jeremy had been acting out all summer, choosing exactly the wrong outlets for his grief. “You okay?” Elena asked, predicting the answer before it was delivered.

Jeremy scoffed, the picture of angst-ridden adolescence. “Don’t start.”

He took a gulp from his own mug of coffee as he stalked past his sister and followed Jenna out the front door. Elena knew better than to ask where he was going so long before school started; she wouldn’t like the answer.

Behind her, the TV played the news, reporting the disappearance of couple Darren Malloy and Brooke Fenton. It looked like an animal attack, the reporter said.

*

Half an hour later Bonnie pulled into her drive. She’d offered to give Elena lifts to and from school this semester since (they all avoided mentioning the obvious, but the unfortunate truth of the matter was that Elena’s mom was no longer going to be giving anyone rides, even her own children).

Bonnie was pretty much the only person from school Elena had been able to stomach speaking to after her parents’ funeral. Bonnie didn’t do fake-sympathy, and what sympathy she did have was so genuine and well-intentioned that Elena couldn’t begrudge it at all. Since they’d known each other practically forever, they were so well attuned to each other’s moods that it hadn’t felt so difficult to talk to her, even as Elena pushed everyone else away. Another great thing was that Bonnie was content to do most of the talking without expecting too much in return, and that was what Elena needed right now.

“So Grams is telling me I’m psychic,” Bonnie said, launching straight into the story. “Our ancestors were from Salem, which isn’t all that – I know – _crazy_ but she’s going _on_ and _on_ about it, and I’m like, put this woman in a home already! But then I started thinking, I predicted Obama and I predicted Heath Ledger, and I still think Florida will break off and turn into little resort islands.” The words washed over Elena like the tide over the sand, leaving no lasting impact. It was just nice to hear her friend’s voice. But as she stared out the car window, her anxiety about the upcoming day crept back in, filling her stomach with an acidic, sickening sensation. “Elena! Get back in the car,” Bonnie said, laying a comforting hand on Elena’s arm. “You were miles away.”

“Shit, sorry. I did it again, didn’t I?” While Bonnie’s presence over the previous months had been indescribably valuable, Elena still found it hard to focus sometimes. It took a press of Bonnie’s hand on her arm or hand to pull her back into reality, away from the thoughts that couldn’t be shut out, no matter how hard she tried. “I—I’m sorry, Bonnie. You were telling me that…”

“That I’m psychic now.”

“Right…okay, then. Predict something,” Elena said, “about me.”

Bonnie let out a gust of breath and glanced over at her friend, evaluating. “I see…”

Before she could finish, something slammed into the windshield and both girls gasped, Bonnie’s foot slamming onto the brake. The tires squealed as the car came to an abrupt stop and Elena’s breath became more panicked, shallow. The sound was too familiar, taking her back to that night on the bridge –

“Oh my God, what was that?” Bonnie exclaimed. “Elena, are you okay?”

Her concern radiated through her voice as both she and Elena crumpled against their respective seats, adrenaline shooting through them.

Elena let out a few grounding breaths before she replied. “It’s okay, I’m fine.”

“It was like a bird or something,” Bonnie explained, sounding slightly frazzled. “It came out of nowhere.”

“Look, it’s fine. I can’t be freaked out by cars for the rest of my life,” Elena said. In theory, it sounded so simple, but ever since that night she couldn’t help but regard the vehicles like steel traps. Every time she got into one, she was wondering when it would clamp down on her.

They both took a moment as Bonnie evaluated whether she should say something about it and Elena ardently wished that she wouldn’t. Finally, Bonnie let out the breath she was holding and said, “I predict that this year is going to be kick-ass. And I predict that all of the sad and dark times are over and you are going to be _beyond_ happy.”

Elena couldn’t help but smile at her best friend’s eternal optimism. There was a time for existential despair and then there was time for people like Bonnie and Caroline, who insisted on making the best of every situation. In times like these, Elena really wasn’t looking for any more despair.

As Bonnie drove the car off the sidewalk they’d stopped on and down the remainder of Laurel Avenue, Elena caught a glimpse of the crow perched on top of the sign. It was seemingly innocuous, unmoving as it was, but the sight of it still sent a shiver up her spine. She was still paranoid, she supposed. Shaken by the abrupt halt of the car and the bird’s part in it.

* Mystic Falls High School was an imposing red and white building, the biggest single structure in the entire town. An attempt to modernise the area had resulted in the old building being knocked down slightly over seven years ago and replaced with the new structure which rejected the old fences and gates in favour of acres of green grass stretching out in all directions. It was a friendlier environment, but it did have the knock-on effect of increasing truancy.

The school’s reputation meant that the student body had swelled over recent years, drawing in pupils from the neighbouring towns as well as Mystic Falls itself.

Zach had given Stefan the brief this morning before he’d left, going through some of the more notable changes that the town had enacted during his absence.

He knew he was attracting stares as he strode through the congregations of students huddled outside the main building – it hadn’t really occurred to him that his appearance might draw unwanted attention. He dressed well, and expensively, but wondered if he shouldn’t adopt the more traditional male teenage attire as he heard one girl whisper to her friend, “Oh my gosh, he looks like a male model!” Enhanced hearing was, sometimes, really annoying.

*

“So, none of the guys got any hotter over the summer,” Bonnie lamented as they wandered down the corridor. “What a shame. At least puberty’s treated the girls right.”

“Didn’t you say you’d gone off girls after Michelle last year?” Elena responded as they reached the row of lockers. “Or was it Dana who did it?”

“Okay, first off, Dana was gender fluid, so they didn’t really put me off anyone. Second, just because I’ve sworn off them for a while doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate from a distance. And, thirdly, your ex is staring at you.”

Elena glanced around and saw that Matt was indeed looking at her from across the corridor, an expression she couldn’t quite place crossing over his face when he caught her gaze. She couldn’t tell if he was sorrowful or pissed off – and that right there was probably why they weren’t such a good match. She raised her hand to wave at him, only for him to turn away and slam the door of his locker. Definitely pissed off, then.

“He hates me,” she sighed, turning back to Bonnie.

“That’s not hate. That’s ‘you dumped me, and it hurt my feelings, but I’m too cool to show it so you’ll never know that secretly I’m listening to Taylor Swift’s greatest hits on repeat.’”

“That’s an unnervingly specific speculation,” Elena said. “Who knows, maybe you are psychic.”

Bonnie grinned and at that moment, a barrel of human sunshine and lip-gloss came barrelling into Elena, enveloping her in a hug. “Elena, oh my God, how are you?” Caroline said into her shoulder. Upon releasing her and without waiting for a response, she continued: “It’s so good to see you.”

Elena nodded, knowing that there was no real answer to give.

In the face of such a lacklustre response, Caroline turned to Bonnie. “How is she? Is she good?”

“Caroline, I’m right here,” Elena said. “And I’m fine.” (First lie of the school day.)

“Really?”

“Yeah, I’m much better,” Elena assured her.

“Oh, you poor thing,” Caroline responded, launching forward to wrap her friend into another hug. Elena accepted it and refused to feel stifled – Caroline was just trying to be a good friend. “Okay, then,” she continued, pulling back, “see you guys later?”

“Okay,” Elena breathed, feeling somewhat winded by the onslaught. “Bye.”

And then Caroline was off, in a whirlwind of hairspray and good intentions. “I can’t believe you used to have a crush on her,” Elena said once she was out of earshot.

Bonnie grinned good-naturedly. “ _Used to_ being the operative phrase. God, can you imagine? She’s the kind of person to have every date planned down to the minute, and she’d want to match her outfit to yours…”

“…And you’ve spent a lot of time imagining this.”

Bonnie shrugged. “Sue me.”

*

The ‘Stoner Den’, as if was affectionately called, was located outside the back of the science block, under a blossom tree and in a permanent cloud of smoke.

“Don’t take more than two in a six hour window,” Jeremy instructed Vicki, handing her the pills. Of course, this had no effect except for her to down the two he’d given her without a pause, swallowing them dry.

“Hey, Vicki.” The familiar voice made Jeremy bristle before he’d even turned around. Tyler Lockwood was the kind of person who equated arrogance with swagger, and then actually used the word ‘swagger’ unironically. It wasn’t difficult for him to get on Jeremy’s nerves. “I knew I’d find you here with the crackheads.”

“Hey,” Vicki responded amiably, wrapping her arm around her (on-off, currently on) boyfriend’s waist. “I was just coming to find you.”

Tyler slung his arm possessively over her shoulders and stared Jeremy down. Jeremy took the opportunity to light up and take a long drag of the spliff, waiting for Tyler to let loose whatever insult the next few seconds would give his brain time to concoct.

“Pete Wentz called, he wants his nail polish back.”

Jeremy looked down at his hands. He’d borrowed Elena’s nail polish remover to try and scrub away most of the varnish, but obviously he hadn’t succeeded. There were always going to be people like Tyler who felt threatened every time their views of masculinity were breached; unfortunately, Tyler’s view of masculinity meant that he was considerably stronger than Jeremy and picking a fight would, therefore, be incredibly unwise.

So, of course, “I’m sure the hands aren’t the part of Pete Wentz’s anatomy you’re most interested in.”

It took Tyler roughly four seconds to realise that his sexuality was being called into question. Once the meaning of Jeremy’s words had worked their way through his skull, he started forwards, squaring up with typical football-player aggression.

Vicki was the one to pull him back. “Whoa, Ty, be nice, c’mon. That’s Elena’s little brother.”

“I know who he is,” Tyler said. “I’ll still kick his ass.”

At that, Vicki leaned in to kiss him and Jeremy wondered if such infantile shows of violence really turned her on. He treated himself to another drag of the roll-up.

*

As they passed the glass-fronted reception, Bonnie tugged on Elena’s arm. “Ooh, who’s that? New student?”

“I can only see their back,” Elena shrugged.

“Still, it’ll be nice to have someone new around here. I’m sensing Seattle, and he plays the guitar.”

“You’re really going to run this whole psychic thing into the ground, huh?” Elena laughed, watching as Bonnie narrowed her eyes in the direction of the new student.

“Pretty much,” Bonnie replied.

~

The woman behind the desk shuffled through the folder that should contain this new student’s records. She was still groggy – the morning’s coffee hadn’t yet kicked in – and it only increased her frustration when she saw the lack of paperwork regarding the boy stood in front of her.

“Your records are incomplete,” she informed him. “You’re missing immunization records, and we do insist on transcripts.”

“Please look again,” the new student requested softly, taking off his sunglasses (appropriate, she thought, since they were indoors and it was against school policy to wear such ostentatious accessories in the halls). An eerie sensation washed over her as she glanced up into his eyes. It felt as though she was being submerged in fresh, cool water, as though nothing could go wrong as long as she listened to what he said. “I’m sure everything you need is there.”

“Well, you’re right,” she said. “So it is.”

~

Elena tensed when she heard someone call out her brother’s name, saying something about a ‘batch’…oh, hell no. Jeremy couldn’t be dealing again; they’d had this conversation. Frustration simmered as she watched her younger brother push his way into the boys’ bathroom. “I’ll be right back,” she said to Bonnie.

Slamming open the door to the toilets, Elena saw exactly what she’d expected to: Jeremy with his eye drops, thinking he could conceal the red around his eyes and the stench of weed that hung around his clothes with a quick excursion in the men’s room.

She ignored the irrelevant boy who looked panicked at the sight of her. He said something inevitably transphobic and she simply shot him her best ‘shut up’ look, which seemed to do the trick. He fumbled to do up his fly and darted out of the place, leaving her and her brother alone.

“Great, it’s the first day of school and you’re stoned,” Elena said. She wanted to yell, but there was always the risk that a teacher might hear. She wanted to teach Jeremy a lesson but he was only fifteen and if something like this ended up on his permanent record, she couldn’t forgive herself. While she disapproved, Jeremy was simply doing his best to deal with trauma and she understood that all too well. She just wouldn’t let him fuck up his future as a result.

“No, I’m not,” Jeremy lied.

“Where is it?” she demanded. “Is it on you?”

“Stop!” Jeremy batted at her hands, which were reaching for his pockets. “You need to chill, seriously.”

“Oh, shut the fuck up, Jeremy.”

Jeremy looked momentarily shocked – she didn’t swear often – but soon resumed his attempts to keep her from getting at whatever illegal substance he had on him. “Look, stop! I don’t have anything on me. Are you crazy?”

“You haven’t seen crazy,” Elena warned. “I’m sick of watching you destroy yourself. I’ve had to do it all summer, and I’m done.” Jeremy tried to push past her and she grabbed his arm, digging in her fingers hard enough that she saw him wince. “No, you know what? Go ahead. Keep it up. But just know that I am going to be there to ruin your buzz every time, got it?” She exhaled, a calming breath. “Jeremy, I know who you are and it’s not this person. So don’t be this person.”

“I don’t need this,” Jeremy fired back, finally succeeding in pushing past her. At his words, she just couldn’t find the energy to fight back. Nothing she could say was going to break through to him, not right now.

While it was true that everyone she knew had experimented with drugs a little, at some party or another, she didn’t know how to deal with someone like Jeremy – someone who needed the buzz simply to get through the day. Someone who hung out with the stoners, handing in half-finished homework assignments and not giving a damn about what they were missing out on. She didn’t know how to fix him – or even if she _could_ fix him.

*

Stefan saw the heads turn as he walked through the corridor. It was girls, mostly, with a fair few boys thrown in. A nice mix between adoration and jealousy, and overall far too much attention. He should’ve tried harder to fly under the radar.

He was just heading towards his new locker when a girl came hurtling out of the boys’ bathroom, bashing straight into him. Elena.

“Uh, pardon me,” he said. “Did you just come out of the men’s room?”

Elena blushed, ducking her head. “Yes. Um, I was just – you know what, it’s a long story and you probably don’t want to hear it.”

“Sure I do, but I should probably get to class,” he grinned, moving past her. “See you ‘round.”

*

“Once our home state of Virginia joined the Confederacy in 1861, it created a tremendous amount of tension within the state,” Mr Tanner was saying. Elena tried to listen, but the weight of Matt’s eyes on her back was distracting and the embarrassment over her encounter with the new guy was still fresh in her mind. He’d seemed nice enough, but she’d made a complete fool of herself, as per her luck. “People in Virginia’s northwest region had different ideals than those from the traditional Deep South. Then Virginia divided in 1863, with the northwest region joining the Union…”

Elena glanced around to see the new boy – Bonnie had said that his name was Stephen or something – looking utterly disinterested in the lecture. He caught her eye and smiled, a halfway thing that was as much a critique on Mr Tanner’s teaching methods as it was anything else. She grinned back, glad that he hadn’t seemed to find her staring awkward or invasive, or read anything into it. She supposed a lot of people were staring at him, what with his newness.

The lesson went on in the manner of all history lessons – with copious note-passing and barely even an attempt to hide mobile phones – and Bonnie’s texting probed Elena on what she thought of the new boy.

‘He keeps staring at you,’ Bonnie’s latest message read.

‘Oh, really? Or am I just directly in between him and the teacher,’ Elena responded. She paused before adding: ‘You should go for him if you think he’s good looking.’

‘PLEASE, he is NOT my type,’ came Bonnie’s reply. ‘But he is yours.’

‘And what might my type be?’

In truth, Elena hadn’t found Stefan all that attractive. Sure, he was easy enough on the eyes, but she couldn’t quite muster all of the drool that most of the rest of the student body was expending on him.

‘You like the brooding, mysterious types. It’s why you and Matt didn’t work out – you’re more into Batman than Superman. More Han Solo than Luke Skywalker.’

‘You’re such a nerd. What makes you think new guy’s brooding & mysterious?’

‘Idk, he’s got that vibe. Just wait, he’s DEFINITELY going to ask you out.’

 _God, I hope not_ , Elena thought. She had enough boy drama with Matt already.

*

Elena declined Bonnie’s offer of a lift home after school in favour of making the short journey over to the town’s graveyard on foot. The squawk of a bird startled her momentarily as she made her way past the cemetery’s sign.

Morbid as it sounded, her parents’ graves had become a comforting place for her over the past few months. She liked to sit by them and write in her diary or simply watch the sky. It still felt as though they were close by, just beyond her reach (as she said, _comforting_ ).

The gravestone was a simple affair, inscribed with her parents’ names along with the words ‘loving parents’. Nothing more was needed as far as the Gilberts were concerned – the memory of Grayson and Miranda Gilbert would live on without the assistance of a fancy headstone after all that they’d done for the town. It was nestled in a lonely corner of the graveyard, meaning that Elena was unlikely to be disturbed.

She’d just settled down to vent her feelings onto paper when a crow landed on top of her parents’ gravestone. Maybe she was being paranoid, but she could’ve sworn it was the same one from earlier.

“Hi, bird,” she said inanely, distracted by its incessant squawking. Unsurprisingly, it made the same screeching noise in reply. “That’s not creepy or anything,” she muttered to herself.

It fixed its beady eye on her, unnerving. Elena shut her diary, refusing to admit it was the crow’s presence compelling her to get to her feet. “Shoo,” she ordered, flapping a hand at the offending bird. It gave her an unimpressed look and ruffled its feathers, refusing to move from its perch. “Goddammit.” Probably more annoyed at herself for being afraid of a bird than at the creature itself, she grabbed her bag and stalked away, not looking back.

~

If she had looked back, she might have seen the figure half-concealed behind a gravestone. Damon wasn’t trying to be subtle.

~

As she rounded the congregation of trees that separated the latter end of the graveyard from the main street she increased her pace under the irrational feeling that she was being watched. Just moments away from the exit, she collided – once again – with the new guy.

“Were you following me?” she demanded, before immediately wincing at how insane that sounded.

“No, I was just hanging around and I saw you,” Stefan said. “Are you alright?”

“Oh, sorry,” Elena said. “What are you doing in the cemetery, then?”

“Just visiting. I have family here.”

~

Damon, still watching, smirked. It shouldn’t be so easy to hide from his brother, really. He should have broken out a smoke machine, really gone for the theatrics.

~

“I’m sorry, you must think I’m completely insane,” Elena apologised. “I’m just a little on edge, I guess. There was a bird back there – okay, I do know how this sounds – and it was very Hitchcock for a second, so I just freaked out a little. God, sorry. I’m Elena.”

“I’m Stefan.”

“Yeah, you sit behind in history, right?”

“And English and French. I’m a back of the classroom kinda guy, I guess.”

“Right.” He smiled warmly at her and she smiled back, put at ease. So much for Bonnie’s ‘dark and mysterious’ assessment. Stefan just seemed nice. “Nice ring,” she said, noticing the way it caught the thin light of the late afternoon.

“Oh, thanks. It’s a family ring, so I’m kind of stuck with it. I guess it’s sort of big, huh?”

“No, no. It’s just, I mean, there are rings and then there’s that.” Elena let out a gust of laughter and Stefan joined in for a moment before looking away.

“Sorry,” he said, “I gotta go. It was good seeing you, although maybe you should choose somewhere less creepy to write.” He motioned towards her notebook.

“Oh, yeah, it’s just – I’ve got family here, too.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Stefan said. “I guess I’ll see you around, then?”

“Yeah,” she responded, “see you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this section is nearly 5,000 words and it's just the first ten minutes of the first episode. this may be a more serious undertaking than i anticipated.  
> ok so the biggest change i've made so far is that damon doesn't have the weird fog powers that he had at the beginning of s1 and then never used again?? that's just a plot hole that really irritates me. he does, however, have control of the crow even though i'm not at all sure how the creators think animal compulsion works. can he communicate with the crow? is he fully possessing it? is he a weird kind of vampire who, instead of turning into a bat, turns into a crow? you won't find any answers here.
> 
> please let me know what you think! (tumblr is oopshidaisy and i usually follow back!)


	3. exposition, by aid of a party

It was only once his pen was back against paper that Stefan felt he could truly relax. Relating the events of the day, even to an inanimate object, was a way to unload them and sift through them, searching for meaning.

His encounters with Elena had revealed nothing to him, except that she was as different from Katherine as it was possible to be. She was definitely human, for one thing, but her personality was also wildly alternate. Katherine’s interactions had always been overlaid by flirtation, while Elena seemed simply to enjoy talking to him. Like she wanted to get to know him, rather than just get into his pants. (Not Damon’s type at all, he thought with some relief.)

When she’d mentioned the bird in the graveyard, though; there’d been a moment of irrational fear as he remembered Damon’s modus operandi when it came to flying below the radar (literally): possessing a crow. He’d shaken away the thought quickly and refused to ask Elena exactly which bird it was that had unnerved her. Damon was gone, and had been since 1994. He knew better than to return after all this time, after all that he’d done.

He wasn’t sure when it became part of his plan to actually befriend the girl he’d come to investigate, but he knew that he wanted to.

*

Jeremy’s after school destination was Mystic Grill. It was the only eating establishment in the town that would hire high school students part-time and so it was also where most of them came to hang out. The food was reasonably priced and a blind eye was sometimes turned to sneaking an underage drink if you asked the right person (as long as no one got too rowdy).

He spotted Vicki the moment he got through the door, loading food onto a tray, and made a bee-line for her.

“Hi,” he said.

She looked at him with both pity and annoyance. “I’m working.”

With that, she was off to where her brother – Matt Donovan, Virginia’s blondest quarterback and Elena’s ex-childhood sweetheart – and her boyfriend were sitting, dispatching both of their burgers and fries. Jeremy scoffed at the sight of it, of her flirting with Tyler and pretending that nothing had happened over the summer. When they’d been broken up (for three blissful weeks between July and August) Vicki hadn’t treated Jeremy like a kid, or a pill dispenser. But now Tyler was back in the picture and things were straight back to how they’d been before.

~

“Please tell me you’re not hooking up with my sister,” Matt said, watching Vicki retreat back to behind the bar. He knew that Tyler had been eyeing Vicki almost since they were kids – she was always there, an older female presence, when Tyler hung around the Donovans’ house; he’d just never considered that his friend’s feelings were reciprocated.

“I’m not hooking up with your sister.”

It was unfortunate that Matt always knew when his best mate was lying. “You’re such a dick,” he said, shaking his head to try and dislodge the image of Tyler and his _sister_ , Jesus Christ.

~

Jeremy waited until Vicki left the two boys’ table and was heading to clear up a different table before he went over to her. “Hey, what’s your deal?” he demanded. “All summer you’ve been acting one way and then school starts and you can’t be bothered.”

“Look, Jeremy, I really appreciate all the pharmaceuticals, but you can’t keep following me around like a lost puppy,” Vicki said.

Jeremy raised his eyebrows. “When’s the last time you have sex with a puppy?”

At his words Vicki whirled round, a warning written clearly across her face. “Keep it down,” she said. “I don’t want the whole world to know that I deflowered Elena Gilbert’s kid brother, if that’s okay with you.”

“And deflowered…and deflowered…and deflowered…”

“We hooked up a couple of times in a drug haze. It’s over. Not to mention how illegal it is, Jer; you’re only fifteen, you’re a kid.” Jeremy didn’t reply; he knew it wasn’t that she cared about, or she would’ve experienced moral qualms over the summer. “You gotta back off before you ruin things between me and Tyler,” she continued, and there it was. The real reason. Jeremy could never measure up to Tyler Lockwood, bone-head extraordinaire.

“Oh, come on, the guy’s a total dick,” Jeremy replied, rolling his eyes. “He only wants you for your body.”

“Yeah? And what do you want me for?”

She pushed past him without waiting for a reply – and Jeremy wondered whether he could’ve given her one.

~

“His name,” Caroline pronounced grandly, “is Stefan Salvatore. He lives with his uncle up at the old Salvatore boarding house. He hasn’t lived here since he was a kid – military family, so they moved around a lot. He’s a Scorpio, and his favourite colour is blue.”

Bonnie stared at her. “You got all of that in one day?”

“Oh, please, I got all of that between third and fourth period. We’re planning a June wedding…”

Bonnie swallowed the remnants of jealousy from two years ago and merely rolled her eyes at her friend’s confidence. “Sure, good luck with that,” she said, even as Caroline rushed off to greet some of the other girls in their year.

*

After the encounter in the graveyard, Elena had gone home to get changed before she went to hang out with Bonnie in the Grill. (Well, ostensibly that’s what she’d gone to do. Really she’d just needed a few moments alone after the day at school, and the encounter in the graveyard – both with the bird and with Stefan.)

“I’m meeting Bonnie at the Grill,” she informed Jenna as she headed to the front door, jacket in hand.

“Okay, have fun,” Jenna said. “Wait, I got this. Don’t stay out late, it’s a school night.” She put her hands on her hips for emphasis, but ruined the effect when she waggled her eyebrows in Elena’s direction.

“Well done, Aunt Jenna,” Elena giggled.

Going over to the front door, she opened it only to jump back in shock when she saw the figure behind it.

“Sorry, I was about to knock,” Stefan said.

“Oh,” Elena replied. “Um, what are you doing here? And how did you know where I lived?”

“Well, it’s a small town. I just asked the first person I saw,” he said. “And as for why I’m here – you, uh, you dropped your bracelet? I think it’s yours, anyway.”

He offered up the band. It was lavender purple, a tied piece of fabric with a small metal heart in its centre. Caroline had a pink one, and Bonnie’s was blue.

“Thanks,” Elena said. “Have you – uh, have you got any plans this evening?”

“Nothing except writing in my diary,” Stefan responded with a self-deprecating grin. “I haven’t really made any friends yet.”

“You keep a diary?”

“Yeah, I have for a while. It helps me organise my thoughts. You?”

“My therapist recommended it,” Elena shrugged. “It helps, sometimes. Sorry, I don’t mean to be morbid. I only meant to ask whether you’d like to come to the Grill with me. A bunch of people from school normally meet up there.”

“That’d be nice, sure.”

*

“So how’s Elena doing?” Matt asked, without a hint of subtlety.

“Her mom and dad died. How do you think?” Bonnie shot back. She’d pulled up a chair at his and Tyler’s table after Caroline had swanned off to gossip with some of her other friends and was beginning to sorely regret the choice. Matt wasn’t the best conversationalist at the greatest of times, but in the wake of his breakup with her best friend he was practically insufferable. “She’s putting on a good face, but it’s only been four months.”

“Has she said anything about me?”

Talk about having a one track mind. “For god’s sake, Matt, I’m not getting in the middle of whatever’s going on between you two. If you want to talk to her, pick up the damn phone.”

“I feel weird calling her. She broke up with me,” Matt said.

“Give it some time, Matt. It’ll get easier for both of you.”

When she looked up, it was to see Elena entering the bar with none other than Stefan Salvatore behind her. Damn, the girl moved quick. She had to be noticing the stares she was attracting – a jealous one from Caroline, a mournful one from Matt.

“More time, huh?” the football player was saying dolefully.

Bonnie rolled her eyes as he got up from the table to go speak to the couple who’d just entered. She could only hope that his alpha male mentality wouldn’t suddenly kick in and prompt him to square up to the new guy.

~

Elena was well aware of all the stares that hit her and Stefan when they walked in. It was hardly like she could project a sign over them that read ‘JUST FRIENDS’ and of course people were going to make assumptions. She just felt bad for her ex-boyfriend, whose expression clouded over when he saw her.

When he stood up from his table to make his way over to them, she tensed.

“Hey, I’m Matt, nice to meet you,” he said, addressing Stefan.

He held out his hand for the newcomer to shake. “Hi, I’m Stefan.”

Elena smiled at Matt, greeting him with a ‘hey’, which was blessedly reciprocated. She couldn’t stand the thought of losing someone she’d been friends with for so long over a breakup.

The illusion was shattered when Matt continued by saying, “I think I’ll just head out, then. See you tomorrow, Elena. Stefan.”

Elena winced at the formalities, but gave him a warm smile and a wave.

“So, let me guess. Everyone thinks we’re dating,” Stefan said once he was out of earshot and the buzz of the Grill had started back up.

“Pretty much. Do I need to reiterate that this isn’t a date?”

“No, I think you did that enough on the way over here.”

“Good. Now, let’s go sit with my friends. You’ll love them, I promise.”

They managed to find a four-seater in the centre of the bar and sat around it as Caroline let forth all of the probing questions she had for the new boy.

“So, you were born in Mystic Falls?”

“Mm-hmm,” Stefan answered. “I moved when I was still young.”

“Parents?”

“My parents passed away,” he said.

Everyone looked at Elena, waiting for her response to that confession. “I’m sorry,” she said. “My parents died recently, too.”

“They’re the family you were visiting at the cemetery?” Stefan presumed.

“Yeah.”

“ _That’s_ where you two met?” Bonnie cut in. “Creepy.”

“It sure was,” Elena laughed. “He came out of nowhere, like a ghost or something. Scared the hell out of me.”

“Anyway,” Caroline interrupted, refusing to let her line of questioning go off on a tangent, “any siblings?”

“None that I talk to.”

“I heard that you live with your uncle,” the blonde continued.

“That I do.”

“Oh. Well, Stefan, if you’re new then I guess you don’t know about the party tomorrow,” Caroline said.

“It’s a back to school thing at the Falls,” Bonnie added. “Would you like to go?”

“Of course I would,” Stefan replied, looking at Elena. “Are you going?”

*

“You promised,” Zach accused, stalking into Stefan’s room with a newspaper tucked under his arm. He thrust it under Stefan’s nose with an article about an animal attack accompanied by two pictures. A man and a woman. ‘BODIES MUTILATED BY ANIMAL’ was the headline.

“This was an animal attack,” Stefan said, shaking his head. Much as it pained him to state the obvious, Zach couldn’t think that he’d done _this_.

“Don’t give me that,” Zach fired back. “I know the game. You tear them up enough, they always suspect an animal attack.” Stefan winced, thinking back to his Ripper days. It hadn’t ever been a choice for him to tear them up that much. The remnants of bodies, strewn in pieces across the ground. It was impossible not to think that an animal was responsible. “You said you had it under control.”

“And I do.”

“Please, Uncle Stefan. Mystic Falls is a different place now. It’s been quiet for years, but there are people who still remember. And you being here, it’s just going to stir things up.”

“That’s not my intention,” Stefan said.

“Then what is? Why did you come back? After all this time, why now?” Zach demanded, his voice rising.

“I don’t have to explain myself.”

“I know that you can’t change what you are,” Zach said, “but you don’t belong here anymore.”

“Where do I belong?” asked Stefan.

“I can’t tell you what to do, but coming back here was a mistake and you know it.” With that, he left the room, leaving Stefan with a mess of thoughts and foreboding running through his veins.

He reached into the cupboard near the door, the one containing all of his diaries, spanning from the 1800s to the present day. Thousands of stories told over hundreds of years. He picked out one of the earliest journals, leather bound. In its back page he kept a picture of her, of Katherine. Compelled or not, she had been his first love and her resemblance to Elena had not become less unnerving through familiarity with the much younger girl. There were simply no physical differences between the two that he could comprehend. He could still see Katherine’s face as clearly as if it was yesterday and it was contained in Elena’s features. The picture was dated, 1864, and had her signature on it, all flowing cursive in rich black ink. He ran his fingers over the worn parchment, closing his eyes.

Zach was right to want him gone. The thing was, he no longer knew how to leave.

*

_September 8 th _

Mr Tanner was up by the blackboard once again, doing a stellar job of imitating a university lecturer. He’d been talking non-stop since the beginning of the lesson, thirty minutes ago now. Almost everyone’s eyelids were drooping. “The battle of Willow Creek took place right at the end of the war in our very own Mystic Falls. How many casualties were there as a result of this battle?” There was silence throughout the room. “Ms. Bennett?”

Bonnie looked up at him like a deer caught in headlights. “Um…a lot?”

The class’s nervous laughter was a ripple through the stagnant classroom and Mr Tanner bristled at the disturbance.

“Playing dumb isn’t a cute look on you, Ms Bennett.” The laughter lapsed into an uncomfortable silence in an instant, and Bonnie narrowed her eyes at the man who’d just implied – what? She wasn’t sure, but disgust roiled in her stomach. “Mr Donovan,” Tanner continued, turning his attention from one student to another. “Would you like to take this opportunity to overcome your embedded jock stereotype?”

“It’s okay, Mr Tanner, I’m cool with it,” replied the football player.

Another outbreak of giggles flew through the room. “Hmm,” Tanner said. “Elena? Surely you can enlighten us about one of the town’s most significant historical events?”

“I’m sorry, I – I don’t know.”

“I was willing to be lenient last year for obvious reasons, Ms Gilbert, but the personal excuses ended with summer break,” said the teacher. Bonnie clenched her fists, wondering not for the first time how this man had managed to go so long without being fired. God, she wished someone would teach the douchebag a lesson.

Stefan cleared his throat hesitantly. “There were three hundred and forty-six casualties, unless you’re counting local civilians.”

“That’s correct. Mr…?”

“Salvatore,” came the new student’s response.

“Salvatore. Any relation to the original settlers here at Mystic Falls?” Mr Tanner asked.

“Distant.”

“Well, very good,” Tanner said, apparently forgetting that more than a few of the students in his class were descended from the original settlers. “Except, of course, there were no civilian casualties in this battle.”

“Actually, Sir, there were twenty-seven,” Stefan responded. In that moment, it was as though the entire class held their breath. “Confederate soldiers – they fired on the church, believing it to be housing weapons. They were wrong. It was a night of great loss. The Founder’s Archives are stored up in Civil Hall if you’d like to brush up on your facts, Mr Tanner.”

The collective breath was exhaled with astonishment and a smattering of chuckles. Elena turned to catch Bonnie’s eye and they both raised their eyebrows, in awe of someone finally talking down to Mr Tanner.

*

The party was filled by most of the student body by nine pm. There were couples up against posts, wrapped up in each other, and the rowdy sounds of drunk teenagers spilling out into the open air. Stefan advanced on the scene with some trepidation. While his display in the history classroom earlier had earned him quite a few allies, he still felt like an outsider. Being on the side-lines was a feeling he was familiar with, but somehow this time he wanted to be a part of it.

At lunch, he’d sat with Elena’s group: Caroline, Bonnie and a couple of other girls whose names he hadn’t bothered to learn. Some of the girls had nudged each other when he’d greeted Elena, giggling away to themselves but Elena had simply rolled her eyes, undeterred. He was glad she didn’t let other people’s opinions get to her. It was simply yet another thing that endeared her to him.

The bonfire spat its flames up into the darkening sky as students gathered around it, sat on logs like something out of a teen movie. There was music blasting out of speakers and a beer bottle in almost every hand. So this was a 21st century party.

He could hear almost everything that was being said by the students, but he was searching for an individual voice, sorting through all the others until he heard Elena conversing with Bonnie, over by the main fire.

“So you’re sure you don’t _like_ like him?” Bonnie was saying.

“Look, if I did I would tell you, okay? It’s too soon after Matt, anyway. I want to be on my own for a little while, sort out my priorities, and learn how to not be that sad girl whose parents died. I’m just not exactly looking for a boyfriend to help with that.”

Stefan smiled, starting over to where the voices were coming from. He was swiftly intercepted by the bubbliest blonde he’d ever met (except perhaps Lexi): Caroline Forbes.

“Hey! You made it!” Each word was punctuated by exclamation marks.

“I did,” he responded.

“Well, let’s get you a drink!” she said, leading him over to where a tent had been set up, filled with refreshments.

~

Over by the fire, Elena laughed at Bonnie’s latest proclamation of her psychic powers. “Okay, okay, fine. Predict something – and make it better than _you will meet a tall, dark stranger_ please,” Elena challenged. “Wait, you need a crystal ball!”

She handed Bonnie her empty beer bottle, raising her eyebrows.

As their hands connected over the bottle, Bonnie jumped back as if she’d received an electric shock, her eyes going wide. “That was weird,” she said.

“What was?”

“When I touched you, I saw a crow.”

Elena’s lungs constricted at her friend’s words and her body seemed flooded by ice cold fear. She’d seen the crow again when she left her house that morning, perched on next door’s roof.

“What does that mean?” she demanded.

“I don’t know…” Bonnie admitted, her voice shaky. “All I saw was a crow, but its eyes were too _knowing_ , I guess – too human. Oh god, I’m sorry. I’m drunk. Don’t pay me any attention. There was nothing psychic about that.”

Elena couldn’t respond; her eyebrows were knitted together but she inclined her head in a shadowy imitation of a nod.

Bonnie sighed. “Okay, I’m gonna get a refill.”

Almost in the instant she was gone, Stefan was by her side. Elena jumped, his sudden appearance messing with her slightly tipsy brain.

“Hi,” she said, trying to slow her breathing.

“I did it again, didn’t I?” Stefan said, apologetic.

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry,” he responded. “You’re upset about something.”

She hadn’t thought her expression would have given her away; she was getting so used to pasting a smile over her problems that she’d thought it would be convincing.

“Oh, uh no, it’s just Bonnie. She’s…been – you know what, it doesn’t matter. I’m glad you came.”

“Thanks. Can I get you another drink?”

“I think I’ve had enough for now, but thank you,” she smiled.

~

Vicki was allowing Tyler to lead her away from the throng of people milling around the main tent, his hand clasped possessively around her wrist. She knew Jeremy was watching, sitting alone with a beer bottle pressed to his lips – but she refused to think about that. Jeremy was still a kid, too young to get caught up in her mess. Besides, she liked Tyler. She liked that he never put her on a pedestal; he just saw her for who she was.

Over the summer, she’d let herself go too far. There hadn’t been a day she hadn’t spent high, in a haze that made everything feel considerably less real, less serious. Letting Jeremy Gilbert fuck her when they broke into the school library hadn’t seemed like a bad idea at the time. Letting him fuck her again, in her room when her mom was god knows where and Matt was out with Tyler, that hadn’t felt too bad either. She’d come crashing down soon afterwards, realising that she’d had sex with a fifteen year old. Three years wasn’t such a long time – except when you were in high school. Soon afterwards she’d gotten back together with Tyler and hadn’t looked back since (except for when the time came for her daily fix of pills, and Jeremy gave her that look that spoke of betrayal. It was stupid; she hadn’t betrayed anyone).

~

“You know, you’re kind of the talk of the town,” Elena said, sat next to Stefan in front of the fire. After the shock of Bonnie’s prediction had worn off, she’d gotten herself another drink and was back to feeling pleasantly buzzed.

“Am I?”

“Yep. Mysterious new guy? Everyone around here loves that kind of thing,” she continued, thinking of Caroline’s new obsession.

“Well, you have the mysterious thing going, too,” Stefan responded. “You seem kind of…sad, but you cover it up by smiling all the time. Like you’ll only ever let people see the happiest side of you.”

“What makes you think I’m sad?”

“We did meet in a graveyard,” Stefan said.

“Right. Well, no, technically we met outside the men’s room,” said Elena, laughing at the memory. Most of the embarrassment of the encounter had dissipated with familiarity. “Anyway…my ‘sadness’, or whatever, it’s not exactly party chit-chat.”

“I’ve never really been very good at, uh, ‘chit-chat’,” Stefan offered.

Elena took a deep breath. “Last spring…my parents’ car drove off of a bridge into the lake and I was in the backseat and I survived, but…they didn’t. So that’s my sad story.”

Stefan hesitated before gently laying his hand over hers. “You won’t be sad forever, Elena.”

Inexplicably, she felt tears jolt her eyes at the small display of affection, of understanding. She nodded at his words, her mouth twitching into the first real smile of the party.

~

Bonnie was drunk enough that she was kind-of-but-not-really trying to chat Caroline up as the blonde stared, fuming, at Stefan’s hand laid over Elena’s. “Okay, sweetie, I think you’ve had enough if you’re pining over someone you met yesterday,” she said, taking the plastic cup out of her friend’s hand.

“She even _said_ that she didn’t like him!” Caroline whined. “How come she gets _everyone_?”

“I’m sure there’s an explanation…” was all Bonnie managed to say before Caroline’s lips were on hers and she was rather determinedly _not talking_.

Although, when they broke apart, she had to ask: “What are you doing?”

“You like me, right?” Caroline said. “As in, _like_ like me.”

“Sure.”

“Then _show me_ ,” the blonde challenged, leaning in again. Bonnie thought it would be crime to say no.

~

Pressed against a tree, Vicki could feel the bark pressing into her back. She felt woozy from the combination of the alcohol and the pills she’d taken earlier, but she was still present enough to know that this wasn’t what she wanted her first time with Tyler to be. He seemed to have a different idea – pressing his hands under her top, palming her arse.

“No, Ty,” she laughed as he sucked kisses into her neck. “I’m not having sex against a tree.”

“Oh, come on, it would be hot,” the younger boy argued.

“For who? No, it’s not gonna happen. Not here, not like this.” Tyler was undeterred, his mouth a wet brand on her skin. “No, Tyler. I said no.”

When he didn’t respond to her words, she struggled against him. One well aimed knee to the groin and Tyler was off her, groaning and wheezing in pain. “What the fuck!”

“She said no!” Jeremy was suddenly there, inexplicably feeling the need to stand up for her honour. “Leave her alone.”

“You’re starting to get on my nerves, Gilbert,” snarled Tyler. The effect was ruined somewhat by the obvious boner he was sporting. As he sized up to Jeremy, Vicki grabbed his wrist, squeezing until she was sure she’d cut off circulation.

“Just go, Tyler; get the hell away from me.”

“Wow. Vicki Donovan says no,” Tyler mocked, a smirk creeping up on his lips. “That’s a first.”

Vicki wanted to hit him again, to kick until there was no chance he’d ever produce any offspring. Instead, she let go of his wrist like she’d been burned. “Fuck you,” she hissed. When her supposed boyfriend had stalked off, she rounded on Jeremy. “I didn’t need your help.”

“It seemed like you did.”

“That’s because you watch too much shitty romance and you think that the way to get in a girl’s pants is to save her from being attacked by another guy,” Vicki snapped. “Anyway, he was just drunk.”

“I’m drunk,” Jeremy said. “Am I throwing myself at you?”

“You kind of are,” Vicki replied, “just in a different way. You want to talk to me, get to know me, see into my soul and screw and screw and screw until you’re done with me.”

“Is that what you think?” Jeremy asked softly, moving closer to her. She started to walk away.

“That’s what I know.”

~

They’d moved away from the main party, over to a bridge where fair lights were draped over them. Elena had three texts, one from Bonnie (‘c is kissing me wtf wtfffffff’), one from Jeremy (‘don’t wait round for me, i'm gonna stay late’) and one from Matt (‘I’m really glad you’re happy.’).

“I like Bonnie,” Stefan said when Elena shared the messages with him. “She seems like a good friend.”

“Best friend in the world.”

“And Matt, he can’t seem to take his eyes off of you – or us, tonight. Have you told him we’re not like that?”

“I guess I feel like if I started trying to justify whatever this is between us to him, I’d feel like I was giving him false hope. He’s been my friend since childhood and we started dating because we owed it to ourselves to see if we could be more,” Elena said, and they both looked down at where Matt was stood, staring up at them. Bonnie and Caroline were with him, their hands tangled up and their heads close together. “It’s sort of like Bonnie and Caroline, I guess. They need to try it, to see if that’s the path they wanna take.”

Stefan nodded. “But what happened with you and Matt? It didn’t work out?”

“My parents died,” Elena said, “and everything changed. Matt and I, together we just – I don’t know – it wasn’t passionate. I guess I’ve always kind of wanted passion, and adventure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm just gonna end this chapter on that trash line bc why not
> 
> anyway the original sexual assault on Vicki made me super uncomfortable bc it seemed like jeremy was saving her?? let's have fewer """romantic""" storylines where a girl has to get saved from rape pls!!!


	4. in which people realise there are consequences

“You’re just doing this to make Stefan jealous, right?” Bonnie ascertained while Caroline worked her way down her neck, nipping little marks in the imprint of her teeth.

“Mm,” came the response, neither a confirmation nor a denial.

“Well, I just thought you should know that, um, both of them are gone and not looking at us, currently.”

Caroline detached herself from Bonnie’s collarbone. “Do you want to stop?”

“Not particularly.”

“Okay, then,” Caroline said brightly. Her smile was like sunshine across her lips. “Kiss me.”

They were away from the main throng of the party, just on the outskirts of the woods. Candles flickered their lights across the trees and Bonnie kissed one of her best friends as though she’d been doing it for years.

~

They were making their way back to the main road when Elena saw it. “What’s wrong?” she asked, her eyes roving over Stefan’s face.

He seemed taken aback. “What do you mean?”

“Your eyes, they – ”

Stefan brought his hands up to rub at his face, concealing the strange pattern of veins dappled across his cheekbones from view. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I think something got in my eye.”

“Oh, that’s okay. You didn’t need to walk me home, anyway, I can hitch a ride with one of the designateds.”

“Wouldn’t want to give the rumour mill anything else to chew on.” Stefan smiled wryly and turned away. “Just make sure you get home safe, okay? I don’t know if you heard about the animal attacks, but…”

“I’ll do my best.”

~

Away from Jeremy, away from everyone, Vicki finally had a chance to catch her breath and think for a moment. She still felt hazy from the drugs and the drink, frustrated by Jeremy’s attempt to be the knight in shining armour and angry at Tyler’s actions and words.

A cracked twig’s snap echoed through the empty night’s air.

“Jeremy?” she called out. She wouldn’t put it past him to follow her, but this – and there wasn’t any logic behind her assessment, but all the same – this was more sinister than that.

She saw him moments before he pounced, his dark eyes with veins stretching out in stark contrast to the pale skin above them, purpling and bruised. His teeth glinted against the light of the moon, lips stretched into a grotesque smirk. She screamed.

~

Once she’d re-joined the main party, Elena felt like a loose end. She certainly didn’t want to disturb Bonnie and Caroline, but it felt as though there was nobody else she could go to. It was almost a relief when Matt came sidling up to her, earnest expression firmly in place.

“Looking for someone?” he queried.

“Hey…” she said.

“When you broke up with me you said it was because you needed some time alone,” Matt said. “You don’t look so alone to me.”

“Matt, it’s not like that. You don’t understand, I – ”

“It’s okay, Elena. You don’t have to lie to me. Just do what you have to do.” His voice cracked and Elena felt awful, watching his expression crumble. “I just want to let you know that…I still believe in us, and I’m not giving up on that.”

Before she could reply, he was walking away. She called his name but he didn’t look back. What could she say, anyway? _I don’t love you that way, and I can’t see myself ever loving you that way_? There were no words she could produce that wouldn’t break his heart. She didn’t know whether Matt would prefer it if her and Stefan were platonic or romantic. Which would appeal more to his ego? Which would hurt him less?

She spotted Caroline, finally separated from Bonnie, pouring herself another drink.

“Hey, how’s it going?” she asked.

“I’ve had too much to drink,” Caroline said sunnily. “So I’m getting more to drink.”

She stumbled, and Elena put a hand on her arm to steady her. “Easy there, don’t want you falling all over the place…”

“Why is it always you?”

“I’m sorry?”

“All the boys, they always choose you and not me. And sometimes, I just wanna be chosen, you know? Even to just have the option of saying no. But they’re always all over _you_. Matt, and Stefan, and that boy in English class, and…”

“Care, there are plenty of boys who’d die to be with you,” Elena said. “And girls, too.”

“I’m worried I’m leading Bonnie on.”

“That’s a valid concern.”

“I’ve never been with a girl before,” Caroline said. “Everyone always saw me as a girl who likes boys, you know? And I am. But Bonnie has a crush on me, and…”

“And it was easy. I get it, Care, I do. But you can’t do something just because it’s easy. You can’t make out with Bonnie because you feel lonely, or rejected. She really cares about you. She’s your best friend and you’ve got to consider her feelings,” Elena said, before she wrapped her friend up in a tight hug. “You’ll do the right thing,” she whispered. She looked up from Caroline’s shoulder just in time to see Jeremy stumbling around, kicking bottles into the grass. “Shit,” she said. “Sorry, Caroline, I’ve got to deal with my brother.”

“Do you need some help?” Caroline offered, but her speech was still slurred.

“It’s fine,” Elena replied. “Anyway, you won’t wanna see this.”

With that, she was off to follow Jeremy into the shrubbery. Such was the glamorous life of a Gilbert. “Jeremy!” she called out, jogging into the woods after him. “Jeremy, where the hell are you going?”

“I don’t want to hear it!” Jeremy yelled back.

“Yeah, well, too bad!”

Elena watched as Jeremy tripped into a ditch and ran over to help him up, her feet slipping against the bed of twigs and branches beneath.

Jeremy’s voice came, a shaky murmur at first. “Vicki? No… Oh my god, it’s Vicki!”

Her body was lying, limp and prone, right beside where Jeremy had fallen. He must have tripped over it. Elena’s breath choked her when she spotted the blood adorning Vicki’s neck like a piece of jewellery. “Oh my god,” she gasped.

Jeremy crawled over the body, all the time repeating ‘No’, over and over again, overcome by unshed tears. Just then, Vicki gasped and her eyes flew open.

“Somebody help!” Elena screamed.

From there, it was chaos.

An ambulance had to be called and Vicki carried out of the ditch, laid onto something flat. Elena was babbling, explaining that she was losing a lot of blood from her neck, as though something had bitten her. She thought she spotted Stefan out in the crowd, but he was gone before she could double-check.

*

Stefan ran as fast as he could back to the boarding house, his thoughts an indecipherable whirl of unanswerable questions. He could feel the weakness of the animal blood swilling around his veins and he felt fragile in the face of whoever had done that to the girl. He’d been walking away from the party when he’d heard the screams, the yells of panic. Going back to help, the pungent smell of blood had threatened to overwhelm him – and then, Elena’s words.

This wasn’t an animal attack.

The door of the boarding house slammed against the wall with the force with which he pushed it. Zach looked up from his desk as Stefan stormed into the hall. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“Someone else was attacked tonight, Zach, and it wasn’t me.”

Before Zach could ask any more questions – all of them were sure to be unanswerable – Stefan took the stairs three at a time and pushed into his room, slamming the door behind him. A breeze alerted him to his open balcony doors, the curtains flapping in the wind. A crow squawked.

It flew into the room, landing on one of the support beams upon which the ceiling leaned. Before he even turned back around, Stefan knew who he would see standing on the balcony.

“Damon.”

“Hello, brother.”

~

“Crow’s a bit much, don’t you think?” Stefan was saying. He didn’t know what he was talking about; the crow was exactly enough. It was enough to freak people out without letting them know exactly _why_ they felt so uneasy. He’d been using it to keep an eye on Elena for months, ever since the night he’d first met her. If he were to bet, he’d bet that she _still_ couldn’t put a finger on what she kept seeing out of the corner of her eye. Of course, he’d been a bit obvious in the graveyard – very Hitchcock, as she’d said – but it was all working towards his dramatic entrance. God, did he love a dramatic entrance.

“It was that or a bat, so…” he responded blithely, flicking through the books on his brother’s desk.

“When’d you get here?” Stefan demanded. Briefly, Damon considered telling him the truth. He’d been here for almost half a year now, trying to figure out how to free Katherine (and trying to decipher what a girl who looked exactly like Katherine was doing running around, but that was a lesser concern). But in general he made a point of always skirting around the truth, exuding an aura of mystery – and pissing off his younger brother.

“Well, I couldn’t miss your first day at school,” he teased, smirking. “Your hair’s different,” he continued. “I like it.”

“It’s been fifteen years, Damon.”

Damon almost tensed at the oblique mention of 1994. Almost. He’d managed to train himself out of reactions like that – as much as he could do without entirely expunging his humanity. “Thank god,” he said smoothly. “I couldn’t take another day of the nineties. That horrible grunge look? Did not suit you. Or anyone, for that matter. Remember, Stefan, it’s important to stay away from fads.”

“Why are you here?” Stefan demanded, a growl at the back of his voice.

“I miss my little brother.”

“You hate small towns,” Stefan said. “It’s boring. There’s nothing for you to do.”

“I’ve managed to keep myself busy.” That said, he did miss the anonymity of places like New York. He’d been growing steadily more careless with his feeds just for want of something to _happen_. An army of small-town vampire hunters, maybe; that’d be fun.

“You know, you left that girl alive tonight. That’s very clumsy of you.”

“Ah. That could be a problem…for you,” Damon grinned, continuing his perusal of Stefan’s possessions. It was almost no fun; there was nothing to be found in his vanilla, tee-total brother’s room of any interest.

“Why are you here _now_?” Stefan repeated.

“I could ask you the same question.” Damon paused to flip through the diary left so conveniently out on the desk before continuing. “However, I’m fairly certain your answer can be summed up in one little word: Elena.” He smiled glibly into Stefan’s stony expression. It was like talking to a brick wall; luckily, he liked the sound of his own voice.

*

Back at the Falls, Elena watched as the stretcher was loaded into the ambulance, feeling her insides clench at the pure terror on Matt’s face. She didn’t know how to comfort him when his sister was being taken to the hospital, her throat a pool of flesh and congealed blood. She couldn’t do anything but watch on, helpless. She felt a soft hand on her shoulder and jerked round, relaxing when she saw that it was Bonnie.

“We’re gonna go mainline coffee,” Bonnie said, “and wait for news.”

Elena nodded. “I’ve got to take Jeremy home.”

There was silence, only cut by the shriek of the sirens alerting everyone to their presence, a loop of continuous sound.

“Elena…”

“You don’t have to say it.”

“I know, but I want to. There’s no way I’m psychic,” Bonnie said. “I know that. But whatever I saw, or I think I saw, I have this feeling…like it’s only the beginning.”

There was nothing that could be said in response, but Elena was filled with the certainty that her best friend was right. And she had no idea what to do about it.

*

“She certainly took my breath away,” Damon continued, “that Elena. She’s a dead ringer for Katherine.” His brother continued to observe him in silence, brow furrowing and jaw clenching. It was all very touching, that he was so protective of the girl already. And of _course_ Damon wasn’t going to hurt her – it was just that Stefan didn’t need to know that. “Is it working, Stefan? Being around her, being in her world? Does it make you feel _alive_?”

“She’s not Katherine,” Stefan said, wariness written all over his voice. Oh, so he thought Damon was going to try and _seduce_ her. Now there was an idea.

“Well, let’s hope not. We both know how that ended.” Damon carefully avoided imbuing bitterness into his voice. It was one thing to pine over a presumed dead woman for over a hundred years – it was another thing to go around telling people about it. He had a dark and mysterious aura to maintain, after all. “Tell me something. When’s the last time you ate something stronger than a squirrel?”

Stefan backed away, carefully, when Damon advanced into his space. “I know what you’re doing, Damon, and it’s not gonna work.”

“Really? Don’t you crave a little? A tiny bit? Long for those Ripper days…” He kept on moving forwards, letting Stefan back away but never slowing his pace. “We could do it together: I saw a couple girls out there and I know they’re your type. Or why not cut straight to the chase? Just go for Elena, I won’t stop you.”

“Stop it!” Stefan yelled. It was almost like a flashback to when they were younger, and Damon had teased his little brother. Only this time their relationship was damaged irreperably and they were both immortal vampires.

“Can’t you imagine what she tastes like?” Damon continued, unimpeded. He concentrated on the thought of sticky sweet blood cascading over his lips, the dappled veins below his eyes rising closer to the surface. If there was one thing that was sure to rile his brother up… “Because I can.”

Stefan’s yell was more of an animalstic roar than a word, although if Damon had to guess he would probably assume his brother meant to say ‘stop it!’ in the whiniest way possible. He was knocked off his feet when Stefan launched himself at him, throwing them both out of the window. It shattered under the combined force of both of their bodies travelling at a speed faster than the human eye could fully comprehend and they landed on the gravel ground outside, surrounded by the crystal shards of the broken glass. It was enough to take the wind out of Stefan, but Damon was stronger than that. He picked out the tiny transparent blades that were impaling various parts of his skin and sped away before Stefan even had a chance to look up. Human blood would do that for you.

Stefan’s pained groans were enough for Damon to gain a sick sense of satisfaction. In his anger, Stefan had hurt himself more than anyone else. It took a fair few seconds for the weaker vampire to even pull himself up onto his knees, as slow as a human in his movements.

“I was impressed,” Damon said, over by one of the neatly trimmed hedges that Zach cared about so much. “I give it a six. It was missing style, but I was pleasantly surprised. Very good with the whole face – ” He imitated Stefan’s angry face and accompanying sound effects. Stefan’s angry face, in all honesty, was very similar to all of his other faces; he wasn’t a man with much range in that department. “ – thing. It was good.”

“Yeah, Damon, it’s all fun and games,” Stefan responded, as much anger in his voice as there had been during the height of the Katherine Thing. “But wherever you go, people die.”

“And wherever you go, bunnies die,” Damon replied. “That, my friend, is the circle of life.”

“Not here. I won’t allow it.”

“You won’t _allow_ it? Are you gonna send me to my bedroom with no supper as well? Am I not allowed to go out and meet boys?” Damon mocked carelessly. “Is this what being grounded feels like?”

“Damon, _please_. After all these years, can’t we just give it a rest?” Stefan begged.

“I promised you an eternity of misery, so I’m just keeping a promise.” In all honestly, Damon hadn’t thought about his pledge to ruin Stefan’s life for a while now. It was seemed as convenient a reason as any for him to be hanging around in Mystic Falls without giving away what he was really looking for. Deception was generally a necessary part of plans that involved raising the dead. Or the undead, as the case may be.

“Just stay away from Elena.”

Damon smiled. “It’s a small town, brother. What if I run into her at the drugstore?”

Stefan didn’t even reply. Damon thought that this was probably fair enough. There was a limit to the number of witty things he could think to say per minute.

“Hey, where’s your ring?” he said, trying a different technique to get a rise. Stefan glanced down at his hands, bare without the enchanted heirloom in its usual resting place. Damon sucked in a breath through his teeth. “The sun’s coming up in a couple of hours, and – poof! – ashes to ashes.” Again, Stefan said nothing. He looked, as usual, vaguely constipated, glancing between his hand and Damon. Never one to be unnecessarily cruel (or at least, not when it became boring) Damon chuckled. “Relax, it’s right here.”

He held out the magical ring in the palm of his hand, daring Stefan to reach for it. Stefan’s eventual stretch was tentative, but Damon resisted the urge for familial banter in the form of holding it up higher than his brother could reach or jerking it away at the last second. He was just nice like that.

Just as Stefan was putting the jewel back on, Damon grabbed him by the throat and threw him bodily across the yard. Stefan’s body slammed into the shed and Damon thought he heard at least four bones crack. Good.

Standing over his brother’s body, he spoke. “You should know better than to think you’re stronger than me. You lost that fight when you stopped drinking human blood. I wouldn’t try hurting me again.” His enhanced hearing picked up on the creak of a step back in the house. “Hmm, looks like we woke Zach up. You should probably apologise for that.”

Then he made his way back towards the house, whistling a jaunty tune. Stefan still hadn’t managed to pick himself off the ground.

*

The area was still flooded with police cars, although the ambulance was gone. Elena spotted Jeremy standing alone, staring forlornly out at the crush of onlookers who still hadn’t gone home. There was still a beer bottle clenched in his hand, and he took a long swig, uncaring or oblivious to the police presence. She made her way over slowly, not knowing what to say.

“Hey,” she tried softly when he spotted her. “You okay?”

He didn’t respond.

“I called Jenna. She’s on her way.”

On top of the lack of reply, Jeremy downed the rest of the beer, raising a defiant eyebrow in her direction.

Elena rolled her eyes. “Those people in uniforms, last time I checked, are police.” And Jeremy chucked the empty bottle in the general direction of the cops, not hard enough for it to hit or hurt anyone, but hard enough for it to shatter onto the ground, crystals of green glass rocketing against the grass. “People are going to stop giving you breaks, Jer,” Elena said, exasperated. “They just don’t care any more. They don’t remember that our parents are dead because they’ve got their own lives to deal with. The rest of the world has moved on. You should try, too.”

“So you’ve moved on, have you?” Jeremy demanded, voice never rising loud enough for anyone else to hear. So maybe he didn’t want to make a scene after all. “Look, I know you’re too much of a good girl to smoke or drink or anything that you think I’m doing wrong, but you’re no better. You just like to think you are. You hang around graveyards writing in your diary, you never want to drive anywhere, and you dumped Matt because you can’t deal with anyone being close to you. Don’t think I don’t notice your shit just because I’m dealing with my own.”

Elena’s eyes flickered shut as she shook her head, almost trying to dislodge Jeremy’s accusation. “Mom and Dad wouldn’t have wanted this,” she said. And Jeremy didn’t reply, but he didn’t move away from her, either. She supposed that would have to count as progress.

*

Bonnie toyed with the torn sugar sachet, avoiding Caroline’s eyes. They’d already downed two black coffees apiece, all without saying anything that really mattered. The thing was, Bonnie wasn’t an idiot. She knew that she was on a countdown to shattering the fragile feeling in her chest, the one that hoped Caroline might smile all sweet and tell Bonnie that she wanted to make a real go of it. That was a fantasy, and Bonnie knew it. But hope wasn’t something she could banish as easily as she’d like to.

“Are you sober yet?” she asked.

Caroline raised her head out of her hands, inhaling deeply. “No,” she said eventually, letting her face sink onto the table. Bonnie had barely drunk anything, but she wasn’t without sympathy for how ill her friend must be feeling right now.

“Keep drinking the coffee, I gotta get you home,” she said.

She was going for light, with the hint of a chuckle tacked on the end of her words, and that was what finally burst the dam of Caroline’s insecurity. Sitting up, she let loose. “Why didn’t he go for me?” the girl demanded, plaintive. Bonnie would rather be having literally any other conversation. “You know, how come the guys that I want never want me?”

 _But I want you_. “I’m not touching that,” she replied instead.

“I’m inappropriate. I always say the wrong thing, and…Elena always says the right thing. She doesn’t even try! And he just picks her, and she’s always the one that everyone picks, for everything. And I try so hard, and…I’m never the one.”

Rather than pick any of that apart, Bonnie settled on, “It’s not a competition, Caroline.” Predicatbly, it wasn’t the right thing to say.

“Yeah, it is,” came the quiet reply. Caroline’s face, so animated throughout her drunken monologue, was now as pensive as it was dejected. Her face leaned heavily on her hands and the glazed over look in her eyes was blurred through the film of tears there.

“Look, Care, I know you don’t want to hear this, but. You’re the one I picked, in so far as that applies where we’re concerned. And as for Stefan and Elena…they’re not even like that. They’re friends. Your feelings of, of inadequacy or whatever, it’s completely unfounded. Elena’s never stolen anything from you. I love both of you, so when I say there’s no need for comparison, I mean it.”

And then Caroline is the one who won’t meet her eyes.

*

Matt sat beside his sister’s hospital bed, clutching at her lifeless fingers and waiting for a response, just a twitch to let him know that that was still his Vicki under those layers of gauze and bandages, under the bruises covering her face and arms.

He saw the shift of her eyelashes before he felt the motion of her hand and was half out of his seat before her eyes had even opened. “Vicki…” Her movements were dulled, presumably by the concoction of painkillers they had her on, but she looked up at him, eyes struggling to register what she was seeing. “Hey…hey, it’s okay. You’re gonna be okay,” he whispered.

“Matt – ”

“Shh. Hey, don’t try to talk, okay,” he said, remembering what the doctors had said about the state of her throat. “You’re fine.”

But she caught his gaze in hers and her wrecked, small voice choked out a single word: “Vampire.”

*

Sat on the window-seat in her bedroom, Elena scrawled out words as they flitted through her head, committing them to paper carelessly. She’d thought she could smile and pretend her way through – at the very least – the day, but it had been too much. The wounds of her parents’ death, her break-up with Matt, Jeremy’s concerning habits, they were still too deep to have healed over. It was impossible for her to even think of returning to life as normal when the reminders were constantly there: Aunt Jenna bustling around the kitchen instead of her mother, Jeremy’s door being slammed shut instead of wide open. It was the smallest changes to her routine that hurt her the most.

She knew that now, Jeremy would be sat in his room, bottling up everything he felt about Vicki’s attack. Once, he would have shared his thoughts with their parents, or with Elena herself. Now he isolated himself.

The only thing that brought a smile to her face was Stefan. Stefan, who’d listened to her gush about her feelings without mocking her or making it about himself, who hadn’t known the old her and didn’t want her to return to who she’d once been. With him, it felt uncomplicated, like she could just be herself without the consequences that otherwise followed her. It was a welcome break from reality.

*

Caroline watched Bonnie go up to the counter to pay, feeling like maybe she was really _seeing_ her for the first time. And, truth was, it terrified her. The school’s it girl, future prom queen, soon-to-be Miss Mystic Falls couldn’t like _girls_. That was just the way it was. There was no way to explain it to her mom, who still held the residual resentment of having her husband leave her for a man. Even with everyone who’d seen her tonight, it could be explained away as drunk-girl behaviour, as something she’d done because the guys would find it hot. There was no reason for her to start any process of ‘coming out’ when she didn’t even know what she wanted to label herself.

God, it was such a mess.

She was startled into looking up by the intense sensation that she was being watched. Her eyes locked with the steely blue of the guy sitting at the adjacent table. And – shit, he was handsome. Handsome, looking at _her_ , with his leather jacket draped over him like every bad boy cliché her mother would want her to stay away from. And he wasn’t looking away. In fact, now she’d caught his gaze he was smirking, a slow grin that spoke of the assured arrogance of a boy older than the ones she knew from school.

For now, it was enough to be watched, to feel as though she was desired by someone other girls would be jealous to see her with. So she didn’t avert her eyes, smiled back flirtily. Pushed all the thoughts of Bonnie out of her mind.

It was for the best, she thought.

*

When she glanced out of the window, Elena was startled to see Stefan there. The clock in her room showed that it was past midnight, so she tiptoed slowly down the stairs, trying to avoid waking either Jenna or Jeremy. When she opened the front door, he was stood there, his expression at once sheepish and earnest.

“I’m sorry, I know it’s late,” he said. “I just needed to know that you’re okay.”

Elena considered. “You know, for months that’s all anyone’s wondered about me. If I’m okay.”

“What do you tell them?”

“That I’ll be fine,” she replied.

“Do you ever mean it?”

And she couldn’t say anything except, “Ask me tomorrow.” Then, before she could think better of it, “Would you like to come in? I’ve got coffee.”

Stefan hesitated minutely, and Elena almost laughed.

“I don’t have any unsavoury ulterior motives, I promise,” she said. “But I’d love to talk, if you want to. I don’t really feel like going to sleep.”

And so, finally, Stefan stepped through the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> god, damon's pov is by far the most fun to write  
> so that's it for episode 1!! stay tuned for episode 2, which will be posted as a different work in a series. i'm going to have trouble navigating damon/caroline probably, because it's tricky to navigate consent with regards to their relationship. obviously i don't want to sanitise what he does, which is awful, but i'd also feel uncomfortable writing it as rape. if you have a strong opinion on the matter, please feel free to let me know.   
> as usual, your kudos and comments are very much appreciated!! xx

**Author's Note:**

> twitter: @Ellie_Hopes  
> tumblr: @davidfinchhers/@oopshidaisy


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